First western suicide bomber in Iraq

[MIKE BURN]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/12/01/belgium.iraq/index.html



Belgian paper IDs 'suicide bomber'



Thursday, December 1, 2005 Posted: 1137 GMT (1937 HKT)





(CNN) -- Police say they believe that a Belgian-born woman and convert to Islam, pictured and identified Thursday in a Belgian newspaper, was the first Western woman to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.







A spokesman for the Belgian police's terrorism investigation team confirmed to CNN that Muriel Degauque, identified and pictured by Le Derniere Heure newspaper, was believed to be the suicide bomber who targeted an American patrol November 9.



Le Derniere Heure reported Degauque was born and raised in Charleroi, Belgium. The newspaper quoted her parents as saying that her Moroccan-born husband, Issam Goris, was responsible for her conversion to Islam.



Jean and Liliane Degauque told the newspaper their daughter was brainwashed by Goris.